For now, said the BBC, “the situation is at an impasse”. It’s unclear whether Oli’s “tiger diplomacy” will gain traction, or who is to blame for the increased attacks – man or beast. But what is clear is that “humans and tigers are struggling to achieve peaceful coexistence”.
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In 2010, those 13 nations met for a tiger summit in St Petersburg and committed to doubling their numbers by 2022: the Chinese year of the tiger. Nepal was the first to achieve that target, and to surpass it. Numbers rose from 121 in 2010 to 355 in 2022, thanks to a “strong government buy-in” for tiger conservation, expanded and heavily protected national parks, and strict anti-poaching laws, said National Geographic.
And the prime minister isn’t alone. In 2023, the then minister for forests and environment suggested auctioning tigers to trophy hunters. Birendra Mahato claimed Nepal could earn $25 million selling hunting licences. That “created widespread outrage as well as mockery from conservationists and environmentalists”, said the Nepali Times, just as Oli’s statement did last month.
Nepal’s policy with tigers that attack humans was to put them in zoos – but each tiger costs about $50,000 per year to care for, plus $100,000 for the cage alone. The poor nation has stopped capturing “problematic tigers” because it “simply doesn’t have the money”.
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The success
A century ago, about 100,000 wild tigers roamed Asia. But thanks to rampant deforestation, poaching and trophy hunting their numbers plummeted. There are now only about 5,600 wild tigers left in 13 countries.
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Besides human fatalities, there are other costs, said Al Jazeera – “livestock losses, livelihood disruptions and plain fear”.
The solutions
“For us, 150 tigers are enough,” Oli said in December. “The tiger population should be proportionate to our forest area. Why not gift the extra tigers to other countries as economic diplomacy?”